Trickle Me Elmo…

So whaddaya think of that YouTube video below?   I’ll tell you what…every time I watch it, I think there’s no way I’d ever try something like that.  I’m still recovering from a broken leg, and I sure don’t need another one.   What those downhill bicycle racing guys do is just plain nuts.   I’ll take a much safer hobby, like riding motorcycles.

My recovery is coming along nicely, but it’s still gonna be a few weeks before I’m able to ride my CSC motorcycle, and maybe a little less time until I can hop in my Corvette.  The Vette’s got a 6-speed manual transmission and a very heavy clutch, and I can’t push the clutch in yet. 

My toys, largely ignored for the last several weeks...

Anyway, thinking about it over the weekend, I realized it’s been 4 or 5 weeks since I fired up the Vette, and probably a couple of months since I started my California Scooter.   That’s not an uncommon thing for folks in the US who own motorcycles.   If we don’t use them for everyday transportation the way people elsewhere in the world do, the batteries go flat, and that’s not good.   You can sometimes bring a dead battery back to life, but the best way to maximize battery life is to keep it charged all the time (you should never let a battery get completely run down).

Fortunately for us, there’s a pretty easy way to keep a battery charged.  I use a Battery Tender.   They are inexpensive (I think mine was about $30), and they won’t overcharge a battery.   The Battery Tender has a built in circuit that senses a full charge, and from that point on, it adds just enough juice to keep it topped off.  You can’t do that with other battery chargers if they don’t have an overcharge feature, and you can ruin a battery if you overcharge it.  It’s not a problem with a Battery Tender, though.   You can just leave it connected until you’re ready to ride, and your battery will be fully charged.  I think I can feel a difference when the battery is fully charged…a motorcycle just seems to perform better.

Battery Tenders are easy to use.  Plugging one into a wall socket is a slam dunk.   Hooking it up to your battery is only slightly more complicated.  There are two alligator clips at the end of the Battery Tender wire.   The red one always goes to the battery’s positive terminal (the one with the red insulating boot), and the black one can either go to the battery’s negative terminal (the one with a black insulating boot) or to any other grounded metal part on your California Scooter.  I hook my negative Battery Tender clip to the muffler bolt, like you see in the photo.   It’s easy to get to.

Red goes to red, and black goes to black (or anyplace that's grounded)

A bit of advice here…when you are making these connections, take off all your jewelry.   If any jewelry contacts the battery’s positive terminal and any other part of the motorcycle, it’s gonna be bad.  Just take off the rings and your watch first. 

The green light means the battery is fully charged

When you plug a Battery Tender into the wall socket, it first blinks with a red light.  When you connect the charging leads to the battery, the blinking red light will turn to a solid red (no blinking) until the battery is fully charged.  Once the battery is fully charged, the red light turns green (like you see in the photo).    You can just leave it hooked up like this until you’re ready to ride.

If you hook up a Battery Tender and the light stays red for days on end, your battery is toast.  It needs to be replaced.  Batteries don’t last forever.  If you get two years or more out of a motorcycle battery (that’s on any motorcycle, not just a California Scooter), pat yourself on the back…you’ve done good.

I forgot to hook my batteries to their Battery Tenders before I went in to get my leg squared away.   I have two Battery Tenders, and this weekend I hooked one up to my red Classic, and the other to my Corvette.   As I mentioned above, I hadn’t started either of my toys in more than a month.  The California Scooter charged in about two hours.   The Vette took a good three days (it’s a much bigger battery).

I hope you got a charge out of this blog (sorry, couldn’t resist that).  I found writing it to be electrifying (oops, another one).   If you already knew all about keeping your battery charged (and I’ll bet a lot of you did), don’t be negative (ah, there I go again) and don’t blow a fuse (hmmm…).   You might find it shocking (uh oh) that a lot of people are in the dark about these things (gee whiz), so get them hooked up (oh boy) and turn them on to it (not another one!).   They’ll find it illuminating.

I’m positive.